Note that the highlight of the cobalt-free battery released by Honeycomb Energy is not that the energy density exceeds 240Wh/kg, but that it is a cobalt-free battery.
As the name implies, a cobalt-free battery means that the battery does not contain "cobalt". Due to the high cost and scarcity of cobalt, at present, "high nickel and low cobalt" has become the development trend of ternary lithium batteries, and car companies and power battery companies are committed to reducing the proportion of cobalt in power batteries. Tesla CEO Musk has repeatedly mentioned reducing the proportion of cobalt in the battery and even proposed a cobalt-free battery solution.
Cobalt is one of the most important cathode materials for power batteries, which can not only stabilize the layered structure of the materials, but also improve the cycle and rate performance of the materials. On the basis of long battery life, high safety and long service life, Honeycomb Energy successfully launched a cobalt-free battery, which is of great significance to the development of the whole industry.
However, from another perspective, the great progress of an industry will inevitably affect the great changes in the existing industrial chain. Whose cheese will be moved by the introduction of cobalt-free batteries?
As far as ternary lithium batteries are concerned, cobalt-free batteries will occupy a great advantage in the market segment of 600-800km battery life after they are officially listed, while lithium iron phosphate batteries will occupy a market segment of 400-600km battery life because of their low cost and high safety, especially after BYD released the "Blade Battery".
In this way, the market segment occupied by ternary lithium batteries with high nickel ratio will be further squeezed, and the market share of ternary lithium batteries will be affected to some extent.
For ternary lithium battery giants, although all-solid-state battery is an important development direction in the future, the technology is not mature at present, so cobalt-free battery is the main development direction when all-solid-state battery technology is mature.
At present, Honeycomb Energy and Tesla strongly embrace cobalt-free batteries. If the lithium battery giants, including Amperex Technology Co, Limited and LG Chem, can't switch to cobalt-free batteries, they may become very passive in the market competition.
As far as the existing supply chain is concerned, cobalt-free batteries are still "brand-new products", and the upstream and downstream supply chains are not perfect. As a "new force" of power battery, Honeycomb Energy has a brand-new supply chain.
For those enterprises that have been deeply involved in ternary lithium batteries or lithium ferrous phosphate for many years, the transition to cobalt-free batteries will definitely require great changes to the existing supply chain and more advanced equipment and processes. For example, Honeycomb Energy adopts lamination technology, which requires huge investment from enterprises and suppliers.
As far as cobalt deposits are concerned, the content of cobalt in the crust is low, and the abundance is only 0.0025%. The global terrestrial cobalt reserves are about 765,438+million tons, but the regional distribution is very concentrated. Congo (Gold) accounts for 52% of the global cobalt reserves. At present, about 50% of the global cobalt consumption is used for lithium batteries, including lithium batteries for vehicles and lithium batteries for consumer electronics.
The appearance of cobalt-free batteries, on the one hand, reduces the dependence on rare resources, and relieves the conflict over rare minerals in some areas, which is of positive significance; On the other hand, it actually affects the interests of some cobalt mining giants.
Summary: The emergence of cobalt-free batteries will indeed affect many aspects of reform, and will also affect the cheese of many stakeholders. But this is not to say that cobalt-free batteries are not good, but that the new energy automobile industry or the power battery industry has made great technological progress.
Honeycomb Energy is the first to introduce cobalt-free batteries, which is absolutely eye-catching from the performance in the introduction. It is undoubtedly a sweet cake for car companies, and everyone wants to try it. It is estimated that only competitors on the same track are under pressure.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.